Families and Jobs

By: Asim Mohammed

During today’s tough economic challenges many workers who are being laid off are either taking new jobs with significantly less pay or staying put at a job that they don’t find amusing or staying at a job they know wont help them achieve their career goals.

There are two different stories in each situation. Many workers who are being laid off from well paying jobs, such as six figure salary jobs are now accepting any job just to get by and support their families. For example, Shaun Chedister worked for Washington Mutual making about $125,000. After being laid off last year, Shaun spent about a year looking for a job, he finally found one with Ernest and Young as a executive administrator making a mere $66,000. Chedister and his family have had to significantly re-adjust the way they live. Their lifestyle is totally different now by looking at more affordable homes and there car being repossessed because of late payments.

The other situation is only similar in that workers have their original jobs but are afraid to move on because of the sluggish economy. Many workers are staying at their jobs even if they are unhappy. About 96% of workers said they were likely to achieve their career goals at another company. Another 46% said taking a new job in the current economic environment is risky.

Many families are feeling the crunch of a slow economy, whether it’s a family needing to adjust to a different lifestyle because of pay cuts, or a family experiencing problems at home because their spouse is unhappy with their job but they are afraid to move because of the risk of not finding another job. However there is the small niche of workers who have no fear of being laid off because of the specific companies they work at. Such companies like Southwest Airlines, FEDEX, and Aflac among others do not have a formal layout policy and many of these companies haven’t had any layoffs for lengthy periods of time, even during tough economic times. As a result these workers have nothing to fear.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/30/news/economy/pay_cuts/index.htm?postversion=2008123114

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/16/news/economy/job_hopping/index.htm?postversion=2008121715

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/09/news/economy/no_layoffs/index.htm?postversion=2008121111